Let’s talk about food because that is something that connects us all, batte jinn or not. Where does our food come from?— From a kandur? From a dukandaar? From the ration depot? Or from some far off village? Well, anyway, it is increasingly becoming the case that we don’t grow enough food for ourselves in Kashmir anymore; our food import bill runs into millions of dollars. But wherever it is produced, food comes from the soil. And it takes thousands of years for the soil to form. On the other hand, unsustainable farming practices and the wanton use of agrichemicals don’t even need a fraction of that time to degrade the soil to the level where it is no longer productive. What would happen if no productive soils were left?
Soil is an important constituent of our ecology; one that is responsible for supplying 99% of our food, directly or indirectly. Soil is an ecological system of its own, with its own complex biological systems. However, the current industrial agricultural model treats it as a typical industry—where you are supposed to increase inputs to get increased outputs. Growing food is not as easy as putting seeds into the soil, adding fertilizers followed by pesticides and herbicides, and harvesting it, as the chemical-based agriculture would have us believe. Growing food is a set of complex processes involving different relationships between different living components of the agro-ecological system—roots, soil microorganisms, fungi, soil organic matter and the like. These processes can either lead to negative influences on the ecology when not taken care of or can lead to synergies, which benefit the soil-water-food system.
One of the ways agricultural practices have a negative influence on the ecology is through the wanton use of agrochemicals. Up to 4.1 million tonnes of pesticides alone have been used per year in recent years worldwide. Pesticide application leads to chronic illnesses, which has led governments to enforce a complete or partial ban on pesticides in different parts of the world. Studies have shown that different agrochemicals aggravate the problem of antibiotic resistance in human beings. Not just human health, they also affect the health of the soil. Agrochemicals degrade the soil in that they deplete the soil of vital micronutrients and also end up contaminating ground and surface waters. More than half the amount of agrichemical fertilizers applied worldwide is actually not used by plants, but ends up in the soil, where it cannot stay because it is inorganic. It then leaches or seeps into the groundwater or surface water and in the process takes away essential trace elements from the soil. As a result, not only is the food that is grown in such soils devoid of the trace elements, but our water sources also get polluted by the presence of the same trace elements. It is a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, it further points to the need for chemical-free or organic agriculture and horticulture.
The food we eat influences mental as well as physical health. So the question is: given the huge importance of food for us, how did we end up outsourcing the single most vital life-sustaining system—the food system—sometimes to people we don’t even know or would possibly never ever know? We do most of the mundane things on our own: for example, we take the trash out or, at least, some family member does. Yet when it comes to our food, we are more than happy to give the job of growing it to someone we don’t even know— a farmer in a far off village or, sometimes, even in another country. For the sake of argument, let us suppose that not every one of us can grow their own food. However, to know what we are eating, where it comes from, and which chemicals were used in its production is something every one of us can do. In case there is no such mechanism in place, we should set one up. When it comes to things of comfort like a smartphone or a laptop or a car or simply paint for your home, we do all the research and check the specifications before making our decision. Why do we take our food so easy?
Not for nothing did Hippocrates, 2500 years ago, remark: Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
The depletion of soil doesn’t really show, some may argue, because it really hasn’t affected the yield of the food items we need. In some cases, the yields may even have increased due to hybrid seed varieties. The argument is a straw-man—much like the argument that we have the best healthcare ever recorded in history while at the same time we have the highest incidence of degenerative diseases. So, are the agrochemically grown food items of today—fruits and vegetables—providing us with enough essential nutrients, as they did, say, a few decades ago? The answer is: no! A recent study concluded that to get the same amount of Vitamin A today, one would have to eat eight oranges compared to one orange 40 years ago. Same is the case with the other food items. Input-intensive agricultural practices have stripped the soil of essential micronutrients. And it is not just about micronutrients; it goes far beyond that. Recent scientific studies have pointed to an alarming lack of phytonutrients in our food production. Phytonutrients are the compounds which have the potential to reduce the risk of the four main human health disasters of the present age: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and dementia. This points to a serious fault in our line of thinking which makes us focus only on the enhanced yield we get when we resort to hybrid or genetically modified high yielding varieties or even the so-called high-density techniques. It is important to highlight the difference between healthcare and food health here. Better healthcare may have increased life expectancy over the decades, but the risk of degenerative diseases has increased, mainly due to unhealthy food.
Humus content is the benchmark of soil quality. Chemical fertilizers do not build humus; they do not increase soil health. They rather help the plant grow by providing some of the essential nutrients—Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK). This is not sustainable. A sustainable way is to build humus using organic matter. The key to healthier food is healthier and full-of-life soil, not increased use of hybrid seeds, fertilizers and other agrochemicals. Another reason for the importance of the organic matter in the soil is: the less organic matter that is in the soil, the more compact the soil becomes and, as a result, the less its water retention capacity. This leads to less water being absorbed by the land in the event of heavy rains, thus increasing the danger of floods. As I said at the beginning of the article, our agricultural and horticultural practices can either have negative effects on the ecology or lead to a synergy between different ecosystem services.
At a time when most of the agricultural and the horticultural research is focussed on developing disease resistant and high yielding varieties without any consideration for the nutritional content or health value of the food, the onus lies on us, the consumers, to start the change where it begins, at home, in the kitchen garden! Let’s learn the basics of kitchen gardening from our parents and grandparents, and use traditional methods of enriching and preserving the soil. This needs to be done before it’s too late before all the traditional knowledge is lost. This is an important aspect of being free. Freedom starts and ends with our food!
(Tavseef Mairaj is a doctoral candidate at Hamburg University of Technology, and studies agroecology and ecological engineering. Tavseef is interested in knowing what you thought about this article and solicits your views on this theme. Your emails are welcome at er.tavseef@gmail.com)
